Mr. Ginsburg was too far away from the panic button when the three thieves come into his shop brandishing Uzis.
“Everybody, on the floor!” One pointed the Uzi right at Ginsburg, “Except you, old man, out from behind there!”
There were two couples on the floor. Ginsburg moved and danced out from behind the counter to get to the front, and the man in the mask pushed him to the floor, even putting his foot on his back. Ginsburg started panting, and then there was screaming when the glass broke.
Alarms went off everywhere, as they should, but that didn’t deter the thieves as they scooped items into bags. “Five!” yelled the man with his foot on Ginsburg, and there was more breaking glass.
“Four!”
“Wow, look, the guy can count backwards.”
Ginsburg turned his head, to see a blond man with stuck-up hair standing in the doorway. He wore a simple red button-down shirt, black pants, and boots. A young man was with him, another blond standing just behind him. “I think they’re robbing the place.”
“Perceptive,” said the first blond, stepping into the store, glass crunching under his feet.
The men had finished loading the bags, and the man who had his foot on Ginsburg, took it off and turned to blond. “Delta!” he yelled, and everyone started shooting.
The boy yelped and fell back, but the blond man raised his hands and yelled “Contego!” A bright red shield went up, and at the same time, tendrils came out from it like whips, striking the men as they stood firing. Some ducked, some had goggles and didn’t, but the tendrils were like razors and cut through the material to flesh underneath –
Sparks flew from one such strike, and Ginsburg realized that these weren’t men. Cyborgs? Androids?
A tendril whipped out and struck a gun away, and it fired on its own in an arc hitting the ceiling. Someone in a gold and green power suit came out of nowhere and grabbed the firing Uzi, shutting off the autofire button at the same time. Bullets ricocheted off of him as he slammed into another man, who then went backwards into one of the counters.
Meanwhile tendrils still picked off not just guns, but arms as well, tearing out arms from the men shooting – and there were sparks as the arms flew through the air, guns firing until they were spent.
The leader tried to push by the blond, but was tackled by the power suit man and pinned down onto the glass-ridden floor. The Uzi from his hand went skittering across the floor while the man yelled, “Lambda!”
The men all gathered, sparks flying around and between them. They stood in a group while the blond man yelled, “Contego Tu!” Ginsburg watched as a bubble of blackness surrounded the men, and they popped out of existence at the same time he saw a flash echo inside that bubble.
The only one left was the leader, still on the floor. He was squirming but the man in the power suit held him down, holding his arms up above his head. The blond turned to the two struggling on the floor. He stomped his foot and tendrils of darkness came out of the floor, wrapping around the man’s arms legs, and waist.
“Now, then,” he said, and went to help one of the couples off the floor. “Who works here? I’m here to get an engagement ring.”